Electric oven toaster door operating mechanism

ABSTRACT

An electric oven toaster construction wherein a spring loaded door stop mechanism is provided for permitting a toaster oven door to be automatically partially opened at the end of a cooking cycle, and wherein the door stop mechanism also permits full manual opening of the door against the force of a spring.

[451 Apr. 25, 1972 [541 ELECTRIC OVEN TOASTER DOOR 3,086,511 4/1963 Loch....l26/335 3,ll9,000 l/l964Lochetall......................l.......2,l9/4l3 OPERATING MECHANISM PaulV. Snyder, Whitehall, Pa.

General Electric Company Nov. 19, 1970 Primary E.\'aminer--Charles J.Myhre [72] inventor:

. Anorne v-Lawrencc R. Kempton. Leonard J. Plutt, John F. [73 1Asslgnee' Cullen, Frank L. Neuhauser. Oscar B. Wuddell and Joseph B.[22] Filed:

Forman ABSTRACT 21 A l. N

An electric oven toaster construction wherein a spring loaded door stopmechanism is provided for permitting a toaster oven ......126/340,99/334 0 ..'...........F24c 15/16 Held 0' Search 1 26/335 340; 99/334.335; door to be automatically partially opened at the end ofa cook-219/413 ing cycle, and wherein the door stop mechanism also permits fullmanual opening ofthe door against the force ofa spring.

152 U.S.Cl. I'Sl] 1m. Cl. I

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures2,125,989 8/1938 Burch....................................126/340..

PATENTEB APR 2 5 I972 SHEET 1 BF 3 PATENTEDAPR 25 L972 3, 658, 050

sum 2 OF 3 [/7 van {or 850/ 1 S/ yo eK ELECTRIC OVEN TOASTER DOOROPERATING MECHANISM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relatesto an electric oven toaster of the type which may be used to toast breador cook convenience foods such as frozen pizzas and TV dinners, and moreparticularly, to a door operating mechanism of such an oven toaster.

In a prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,511 to J. F. Loch, assigned to the sameassignee as the present invention, there is disclosed a mechanism forautomatically opening a door of such an oven toaster at the end of acooking cycle. As shown in the patent, the cooking chamber has a frontopening, and a door for the front opening is mounted on arms pivotallysupported on the walls of the chamber. The door is opened and liftedupwardly above the front opening at the end of a cooking cycle. Ahorizontal food supporting rack is mounted in the cooking chamber ongenerally vertical links which are mounted so that the rack can be movedforwardly through the door opening. The door supporting arms and therack supporting links are interconnected by an arrangement which causesthe rack to move forwardly through the door opening as the door opens.

In other prior art constructions, a front door for such an oven toasteris pivotally mounted at the lower portion of the oven toaster so that itcan be opened by moving the top portion of the door away from the oventoaster to pivot the door about its lower hinges until the door is movedto its full opened generally horizontal position. In the other prior artconstructions with a door pivotally mounted at the lower portion of thetoaster oven, levers are conventionally fixed to the lower portion ofthe door for cooperation with a horizontally movable food supportingrack. With such a construction, the levers move the food supporting rackforwardly as the door is opened.

This invention is concerned with such oven toaster constructions, andmore particularly to a door operating mechanism which will permit atoaster oven door to be partially opened at the end of the cookingcycle.

correspondingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide areliable and effective door operating mechanism for such an oven toasterwhich will function to permit an oven door to be automatically partiallyopened at the end ofa cooking cycle, and which may be further manuallyoperated to completely open the door to its generally horizontalposition.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one of the aspects of thisinvention, an electric oven toaster is provided with two generallyvertical side walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a from opening.A door is pivotally mounted to the lower portion ofeach of the sidewalls for selectively closing the front opening of the oven toaster. Acarriage is operably connected to the door and is mounted for movementto open or close the door. A timer mechanism is positioned in theelectric oven toaster for moving the carriage forwardly at the end of acooking cycle to partially open the oven toaster door, and a springloaded door stop mechanism is arranged in operable engagement with thecarriage for preventing the door from being automatically opened beyonda predetermined position at the end of a cooking cycle while permittingthe door to be manually opened against the force of the spring loadeddoor stop mechanism. The spring loaded door stop mechanism is strongenough to hold the door in a vertical position against the force ofgravity, but weak enough to permit the door to be readily openedmanually against the spring force.

By this arrangement, an oven toaster door which is pivotally mounted atits lower portion may be partially opened at the end of a cooking cycleto exhaust hot cooking air from the oven toaster to thereby terminatecooking of any food located within the toaster. However, the door isprevented from automatically falling to its full opened position at theend of the cooking cycle, to thereby prevent the door from hitting anyobstruction which might be temporarily placed in front of the toaster.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and attendant advantagesof the invention will be apparent from the following description takenin connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. I is a perspective view of an electric oven toaster constructionembodying my invention partially broken away to show details ofconstruction;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the electric oven toaster shown inFIG. 1 taken substantially on the plane of 2-2 of FIG. 1 showing thetoaster oven door in its closed position;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view'of the electric oven toaster similar toFIG. 2 showing the toaster oven door in its partially opened position;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the electric oven toaster similar toFIG. 2 showing the toaster oven door in its fully opened position; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the electric oven toaste takensubstantially on the plane of 5-5 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing andfirst particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown an electric oven toasterwhich includes a toasting and oven chamber 2 in which is mounted agenerally horizontal carriage 3 for supporting a food rack 4 for holdingfood to be cooked or bread to be toasted. The oven toaster includes agenerally horizontal top wall 8, generally parallel vertical side walls10 and 12, and a front opening 14 to provide access to the inside of thetoaster oven.

A front door 16 is provided for closing the front opening 14. The door16 includes two outwardly projecting pivot pins 22 for pivoting the doorto the lower portion of the toaster oven, and as shown in FIG. 1, thedoor 16 is in its generally horizontal full open position. As shown inFIG. 2, the front wall 20 of the toaster is slanted slightly to the rearso that the front door 16 is in a somewhat rearward vertical positionwhen it is fully closed, the door being tilted slightly so that the topof the door is somewhat to the rear of the lower portion of the door.Thus, the force of gravity will hold the door in its closed position.

The food rack 4 is arranged to be moved partially through the frontopening 14 of the'toaster oven when the door is moved to its full openposition as shown in FIG. 1. To achieve this in a conventional manner,the carriage 3 for supporting its food rack 4 includes two carriagelinks 26 and 28 which are mounted for slidable movement in a forward orrearward direction in the oven toaster. As shown in FIG. 5, a pair ofslots 27 is formed in each of the sheet metal side plates 30 and 32 ofthe oven toaster, and outwardly projecting support pins 34 are insertedthrough the slots 27 and riveted or otherwise secured to the carriagelinks 26 and 28 to slidably support the carriage links 26 and 28 withinthe slots 27. It can be seen that each of the pins 34 includes a headportion 35 which has a diameter slightly larger than the width of theslots 27 in which the pins are positioned, and thus, after having beenassembled to the carriage links 26 and 28, outward movement of thecarriage links 26 and 28 is prevented by the engagement of the headportions 35 of the pins 34 with the inside walls of the panels 30 and 32in the vicinity slots 27 in which the pins are mounted. With particularreference to FIG. I, it can be readily seen that the carriage links 26and 28 have a width which is larger than the width of slots 27, andthus, the carriage links 26 and 28 are prevented from moving through theslots, and their inside surfaces are guided for slidable engagement onthe outside surfaces of panels 30 and 32 in the vicinity of slots 27.

The carriage 3 for supporting food to be cooked or bread to be toastedincludes the food rack 4 which is removably positioned on the carriagepins 34. As shown more particularly in F IGS.,I and 5, the left andright side portions of the food rack 4 includes slots 42 for connectingthe sides of the food rack to the inwardly projecting pins 34.

- The front door 16 of the oven toaster is linked to the carriage 3 sothat movement of the carriage 3 in a forward direction will result inopening the front door, and correspondingly pivotal movement of thefront door in a door opening direction will result in forward movementof the carriage 3 including the food rack 4 through the front opening 4of the oven toaster. To achieve this, two door links 50 and 52 areconveniently pivoted to the front door and to the forward pins 34 on thecarriage links 26 and 28. Preferably, the door links are permanentlypivoted to the front door by means of rivets 54 and 56 which extendthrough rewardly upwardly ex tending tabs 58 and 60 which are formed onthe front door and suitable pivot bearing apertures which are formed inthe forward portion of the door links 50 and 52. The rear portions ofthe door links 50 and 52 are provided with enlarged pivot apertures 57so that the door links 50 and 52 may be removably pivoted to the forwardpins 34 of the carriage by simply passing the pivot apertures 57 overthe respective pins 34. With this construction, it can be appreciatedthat when the door 16 is manually opened by pulling on its front handle70, the door will swing downwardly, abut its pivots 22, and during thismovement the door links 50 and 52 will-pull outwardly on the pins 34 toslide the carriage 3 including links 26 and 28 and the food rack 4 outof the front 14 opening in the toaster. It can be also appreciated thatshould one or both of the carriage links 26 and 28 be moved forwardlyfrom the closed door position illustrated in FIG. 2, such movement ofthe carriage links will cause. the door links 50 and 52 to be pushedforwardly to open thefront door 16.

As shown more particularly in FIG. 1, a timer 25 is provided forcooperating with carriage link 28 in order to open the front door 16 ata predetermined time at the end ofa cooking cycle.

The timer 25 may include any suitable form of electric toaster timerwhich includes an output shaft or lever 44 which may be automaticallymoved from a closed door position shown in FIG. 2, a short distance toan open door position shown in FIG. 3 at the end of a cooking cycle. Inorder to enable the output lever 44 of the timer to move the carriagelink 28 forwardly at the end of a cooking cycle, an abutment 47 may beriveted or otherwise suitably connected to the carriage link 28. Asshown more particularly in FIG. 5, the abutment 47 on the carriage link28 is positioned somewhat forwardly of the upwardly extending lever 44of the timer so that the forward surface of the timer lever 44 willengage the rear surface of the abutment member 47 when the timer lever44 is moved from its closed door position shown in FIG. 2 to its opendoor position illustrated in FIG. 5. With this construction, it can beappreciated that at the end of the toasting or cooking time interval thetimer lever 44 moves forwardly to move the carriage link 28 and thecarriage 3 forwardly. Naturally, this forward movement of the carriagepushes the door links 50 and 52 forwardly to move the door from theposition illustrated in FIG. 2 over its vertical position on pivot pins22 to open the door at the end ofa cooking cycle to thereby exhaust hotcooking air from the toaster to thereby terminate cooking of any foodlocated within the toaster.

In accordance with my invention, a unique arrangement is provided forpreventing the door 16 from falling to its full open position shown inFIG. 1 at the end ofa cooking cycle to thereby prevent the door fromhitting any obstruction which might be temporarily placed in front ofthe toaster. As shown more particularly in FIG. 3, a spring door stopmechanism 80 is connected to the carriage link 26 for preventing thecarriage 3 and door 16 from being moved under the force of gravitybeyond the position illustrated in FIG. 3. The door stop mechanismincludes a generally U" shaped bracket 82 which is loosely pivoted tothe outer portion of link 26 for cooperating with a spring 84 whichfunctions as an abutment stop. As shown, a rod 85 is provided forspacing the bracket 82 from one end of the spring 84. The rod 85includes an eye 86 at one of its end and is pivoted to a post 88 whichmay be fixed to a lower forward portion of side plate 30. Two apertures70 and 92 may be formed in the outwardly extending sides 87 and 89 ofthe bracket for receiving the other end of the rod 85. With thisarrangement, the spring 84 is positioned on the rod 85 between anabutment 96 formed at the eye end of the rod 85 and the abutment whichis formed by the outwardly extending arm 87 of the bracket.

With particular reference to FIG. 2, it can be seen that when the dooris in its closed position the upper portion of the spring 84 is spacedfrom the abutment 87 of the bracket so that a lost motion is providedwhen the door is moved from its door closed position to its FIG. 3position wherein the door is positioned slightly beyond its verticalposition. Accordingly, when the timer 25 partially opens the door andthe door starts to fall to its opened position under theforce ofgravity, the abutment 87 will contact the upper portion of spring 84 toprevent any further movement of the door in a door opening direction.Thus, in accordance with my invention, the spring 84 is designed to bestrong enough so that it will hold the door in its partially openedposition illustrated in FIG. 3 after it has been opened by the timer 25.

The spring 84 is also designed to be weak enough so that the door may bemanually opened at any time by exerting a slight force on handle 70. Itcan be seen that upon the application of manual force in a door openingdirection the door links 50 and 52 will pull the carriage 3 forwardly tocompress spring 84 until the door has been moved to its full openedposition illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4. In this position, it can be seenthat the force of the spring is not so much rearwardly in a door closingdirection, but upwardly tending to move the pins 34 of the carriage 3into frictional engagement with the edges of the side panel 30 in thevicinity of slots 27. Accordingly, with this arrangement, the rearwardcomponent of spring force is not strong enough to move the carriagerearwardly and the door remains in its full opened position asillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4.

From the foregoing description, it will be appreciated that I haveprovided a unique door operating mechanism for an oven toaster forpermitting a toaster oven door to be automatically operated to apartially opened position at the end of a cooking cycle while permittingthe door to be readily manually opened or closed at any time.

The lost motion door stop mechanism includes a minimum number of readilymanufactured parts which may be easily as sembled into a toaster oven.All that is required is a bracket which may be pivotally mounted on atoaster carriage link 26 along with a spring 84 and a guide rod. Thus,an exceedingly simple, yet reliable spring door stop mechanism for anelectric oven toaster has been achieved.

lclaim:

1. An electric oven toaster construction having two generally verticalside walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front openingcomprising:

a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each of the sidewalls for selectively opening or closing the front opening of the oventoaster;

b. a carriage operably connected to said door and mounted for movementtoopen or close the door;

0. a timing device operatively positioned with respect to said carriagefor automatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end of acooking cycle;

d. a spring door stop mechanism for preventing the door from fallingunder the force of gravity beyond a predetermined position after beingautomatically opened by the timing device; and

e. manual means connected to the door for permitting the door to bemanually opened to its full open position, said spring being weak enoughto permit the door to be readily opened manually against the force ofthe spring.

2. An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 whereinthe carriage includes two carriage links slidably positioned at oppositesides of the toaster oven and a food rack positioned on the carriagelinks, the timing device is operably positioned with respect to one ofthe links, and the spring door stop mechanism is operably positionedwith respect to the other carriage link.

3. An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 whereinthe spring mechanism for preventing the door from falling under theforce gravity beyond a predetermined position includes a spring andabutment which are moved into operative engagement with each other andone of the carriage links when the door is moved to its partially openedposition.

4. An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 whereinsaid spring door stop mechanism includes a bracket abutment pivotallymounted on one of the carriage links, a guide rod extending through saidbracket, and a spring positioned on said guide rod and spaced from saidbracket abutment when the door is in its closed position.

5. An electric oven toaster construction having two generally verticalside walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front openingcomprising:

a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each of the sidewalls for selectively opening or closing the front opening of the oventoaster;

b. a carriage operably connected to said door and mounted for movementto open or close the door;

c. a timing device operatively positioned with respect to said carriagefor automatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end ofacooking cycle;

member and the force of the spring are sufficient to hold the door in apartially opened position against the force of gravity when the carriageis operated by the timer to partially open the door at the end of thecooking cycle; and

. manual means connected to the door for permitting the door to bemanually opened to its full open position, said spring being weak enoughto permit the door to be readily opened manually against the force ofthe spring.

1. An electric oven toaster construction having two generally verticalside walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front openingcomprising: a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each ofthe side walls for selectively opening or closing the front opening ofthe oven toaster; b. a carriage operably connected to said door andmounted for movement to open or close the door; c. a timing deviceoperatively positioned with respect to said carriage for automaticallymoving the carriage to open the door at the end of a cooking cycle; d. aspring door stop mechanism for preventing the door from falling underthe force of gravity beyond a pre-determined position after beingautomatically opened by the timing device; and e. manual means connectedto the door for permitting the door to be manually opened to its fullopen position, said spring being weak enough to permit the door to bereadily opened manually against the force of the spring.
 2. An electricoven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 wherein the carriageincludes two carriage links slidably positioned at opposite sides of thetoaster oven and a food rack positioned on the carriage links, thetiming device is operably positioned with respect to one of the links,and the spring door stop mechanism is operably positioned with respectto the other carriage link.
 3. An electric oven toaster construction asdefined in claim 1 wherein the spring mechanism for preventing the doorfrom falling under the force gravity beyond a predetermined positionincludes a spring and abutment which are moved into operative engagementwith each other and one of the carriage links when the door is moved toits partially opened position.
 4. An electric oven toaster constructionas defined in claim 1 wherein said spring door stop mechanism includes abracket abutment pivotally mounted on one of the carriage links, a guiderod extending through said bracket, and a spring positioned on saidguide rod and spaced from said bracket abutment when the door is in itsclosed position.
 5. An electric oven toaster construction having twogenerally vertical side walls, a generally horizontal top wall and afront opening comprising: a. a door pivotally mounted to the lowerportion of each of the side walls for selectively opening or closing thefront opening of the oven toaster; b. a carriage operably connected tosaid door and mounted for movement to open or close the door; c. atiming device operatively positioned with respect to said carriage forautomatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end of acooking cycle; d. a spring door stop mechanism for preventing the doorfrom falling under the force of gravity beyond a pre-determined positionafter being automatically opened by the timing device, including anabutment member and a spring positioned with respect to each other sothat the carriage has a pre-determined amount of lost motion in a dooropening direction before the spring is operatively engaged with theabutment whereby the abutment member and the force of the spring aresufficient to hold the door in a partially opened position against theforce of gravity when the carriage is operated by the timer to partiallyopen the door at the end of the cooking cycle; and e. manual meansconnected to the door for permitting the door to be manually opened toits full open position, said spring being weak enough to permit the doorto be readily opened manually against the force of the spring.